Environmental Threats to
Long Island’s
Central Pine Barrens

As a result of global warming the climate of Long
Island may be more like that of eastern Georgia by the end of this century.
This will of course have a huge effect on ecological communities that are
adapted to cooler climates.

With the expected sea level rise the water table will
also rise. Since the shallow streams and ponds in the Pine Barrens are
dominantly groundwater fed, changes in the level of the water table may have
dramatic effects on the ecology of these bodies.

Acid rain is allowing aluminum in the soil to mobilize
and replace other base cations on the soil. Highly mobile aluminum in acidic
soils is toxic to plant growth, and hence can have a deleterious effect on
overall ecosystem health.

Ground level ozone is known to cause foliar damage and
reduced rate of growth in plants. There were more than thirty days in 2005
when there was acute exposure for plants in Suffolk County. Ground level
ozone is mainly a result of sunlight interacting with motor vehicle exhaust.

In this presentation Professor Hanson will discuss
these environmental threats and suggest monitoring programs that are
necessary to evaluate them. Also, little is known about microclimates in the
Pine Barrens, as no detailed study of the climates has been conducted.
Monitoring will enable us to understand the differences between the
microclimates of each distinct ecosystem in the Pine Barrens region and
which factors are critical to sustainability.

New Tools/Toys to Study
the Earth’s Deep Interior

Many of the phenomena on the surface of the Earth,
such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, are produced by processes deep
within the Earth’s interior. In the past, mineral physicists, who study the
properties of rocks and minerals at high pressures and temperatures, used
equipment in their own laboratories to perform these studies. However, with
the advent of specialized synchrotron and neutron facilities of the U. S.
Department of Energy many of these experiments are now being conducted at
national laboratories, such as the National Synchrotron Light Source at
Brookhaven National Laboratory. Within the past two years, mineral
physicists using these national facilities have discovered a new phase of
pyroxene which only exists at depths below 2700 kilometers; this discovery
helps to explain the unusual properties of the mantle just above the molten
core.

Prof. Liebermann, an internationally renowned mineral
physicist, is President of the COnsortium for Materials Properties Research
in Earth Sciences [COMPRES]. This consortium consists of mineral physicists
from 50 US and 27 international institutions. COMPRES is funded by the
National Science Foundation to provide access and training for geologists to
work at national facilities and has its administrative headquarters in the
Mineral Physics Institute of Stony Brook University.

Heavy Metal Contaminants in
the Environment
and
How Bioaccessibility Affects Human Health

Arsenic,
chromium, lead, and mercury are just a few of the toxic metals that are
being found in increasing amounts in soil, water, and air. The extent of
health risks on exposure to such metals depends on their chemical form and
the many complex processes that influence their geochemical behavior.
Bioaccessibility is the proportion of a toxic substance in an environmental
setting which is available to interact with an organism. Bioaccessibility is
one of the fundamental concepts for evaluating the potential for human
exposure and varies widely among different metals and different
environmental settings. Using examples from around the world, we will
examine some of the geological and geochemical factors that influence
bioaccessibility of toxic metals, how scientists study them, and the
consequences to human health.

Professor
Reeder's research focuses on geochemistry and mineralogy, with an emphasis
on the mechanisms and processes operating at the mineral-water interface. A
major goal of this work is to understand the role that mineral surfaces play
in growth, dissolution, and the uptake of dissolved metals. Because of their
reactive nature and their common occurrence in sediments, soils, and rocks,
carbonate minerals are the focus for much of this work. Closely related
research addresses crystal chemistry and structural phase transitions in
minerals.

Global Climate Change
Across the Pennsylvanian-Permian Boundary
300 million years ago

The most recent glacial interval prior to the Pleistocene
occurred with the assembly of all continents into the supercontinent
Pangea. It is thought that closure of a low latitude seaway between
North America and Europe resulted in the diversion of moisture from
the tropics to the South Pole, thus initiating a long-lived glacial
interval that began in the late Mississippian (ca. 320 Ma) and ended
in the early Permian (ca. 290 Ma). This also initiated extremely arid
conditions at tropical latitudes recognized by abundant sand dunes and
loess. Thus weathering was extremely subdued. This reduction in
weathering in the Pangean tropics would have led to increased
atmospheric CO2 levels and global warming due to the
increase in this greenhouse gas. The warming brought to an end this
long-lived glacial interval.

Glacial deposits are difficult to date because they rarely have
diagnostic fossils and datable horizons. However, the marine
sedimentary rocks deposited in shallow seas during this interval
should archive information regarding the glaciation due to the large
changes in sea level as it responds to the advance and retreat of
glaciers. U-Pb dating of carbonates combined with chemical
stratigraphy of marine sections in the southwest USA allow us to place
some constraints on the timing of this glacial interval and to suggest
possible ways to link the various climate records of this extremely
interesting interval of Earth’s history.

The main focus of Prof. Rasbury’s research is using U-Pb dating
of sedimentary materials to improve the time resolution in the
sedimentary rock record. This requires looking carefully at
sedimentary rocks to understand the history of their development. She
targets minerals that form at the time of sedimentation, or so close
to the time of sedimentation that within the uncertainty of dating
techniques they form at the time of sedimentation.

In-service credit available for teachers

If your school requires that you have a
sequence of educational opportunities in order to receive in-service credit,
please advise them that during the Spring Semester we will be offering one-hour
of in-service credit for each of the: